Looking Back at 2010: UNM's Top-10 Research Stories

By Steve CarrDecember 29, 2010

In 2010, research at the University of New Mexico made the news worldwide. From news of a waterless mantle within the moon, to a potential period of severe long-term drought, to improving cancer treatment, to the exploration of the patterns of body size of mammals after the demise of the dinosaurs, UNM researchers made their mark in 2010.

UNM Researchers Find No Water In Moon's MantleRecently, there's been a fair amount of interest and excitement about whether or not there is actually water on the moon. And it's true, water has been detected on the moon's surface through remote sensing. However, researchers at the University of New Mexico, UCLA, University of Texas at Austin and Los Alamos National Laboratory, have taken a deeper look within the Moon's mantle and the results tell a different story. Their findings were published today in a Sciencexpress Report titled, "The Chlorine Isotope Composition of the Moon and Implications for an Anhydrous Mantle."

UNM Researchers Determine Winter Moisture Linked to Rapid Glacial Climate ShiftsIf past records regarding periods of warming and cooling climate are an accurate indication of weather patterns, then the southwestern United States is likely headed into a period of severe long-term drought say researchers at the University of New Mexico in new research published in the February issue of Nature Geoscience. Variable winter moisture, or the lack thereof in the southwestern United States, is linked to rapid glacial climate shifts say Yemane Asmerom and Victor Polyak, researchers in the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department at the University of New Mexico.

How Media Affects Children's HealthDr. Victor Strasburger, chief of the division of Adolescent Medicine, UNM Department of Pediatrics, addresses recent research on media affects on the health and well-being of children and adolescents in an article on the online version of Pediatrics, the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. In the article, "Health Effects of Media on Children and Adolescents," Strasburger reviews the research that has found that media can influence children's beliefs and behaviors in terms of violence and aggression, sex, substance abuse, obesity and eating disorders.

Computer Science Researchers Find Way to Treat Cancer Using Amazon.com Servers At UNM, innovation often begins with a professor interested in finding a better way to do something. This story begins with Shuang Luan, an assistant professor of Computer Science, who finds great satisfaction in finding ways to improve treatment for cancer patients. He is currently exploring ways to make gamma knife radiation treatments as precise as possible.

What Do Parasites Have to do with Personality and Politics?Could something seemingly so individualistic as someone's personality be influenced by parasites? What about the broad differences in social norms seen between cultures? UNM Biologist Randy Thornhill recently documented the connections between microscopic pests and the character of those they infect.

Research Suggests Large Mammals Influenced Global ClimateMore than 13,000 years ago, millions of large mammals such as mammoths, mastodon, shrub-ox, bison, ground sloths and camels roamed the Americas and may have had profound influences on the environment and implications for climate change, according to research in a paper titled "Methane Emissions from Extinct Megafauna" by Dr. Felisa Smith, UNM associate professor of Biology. The research was released recently in the publication Nature Geosciences.

UNM-SNL Team Brings Home National AwardA team of researchers at UNM's Health Sciences Center and Sandia National Laboratories is being honored by R&D Magazine for its development of a portable, handheld biosensor device capable of detecting dangerous viruses, bacteria and other pathogens within seconds or minutes. The handheld device uses surface-acoustic-wave technology to identify frequency waves associated with specific pathogens.

Grand Canyon National Park to Dedicate the Trail of TimeProfessors Karl E. Karlstrom and Laura Crossey, UNM Earth and Planetary Sciences Department, joined Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Steve Martin and Chief of Interpretation Judy Hellmich-Bryan and many other dignitaries to dedicate a new interpretive exhibit, the Trail of Time, that focuses on Grand Canyon vistas and rocks. The Trail of Time was developed through a partnership between the Grand Canyon National Park, the National Science Foundation and UNM. http://news.unm.edu/?p=5277

UNM Researchers Explore Evolution of World's Mammals Over the Past 100 Million YearsUNM researchers have demonstrated that the extinction of dinosaurs 65 million years ago paved the way for mammals to get bigger - about a thousand times bigger than they had been. The study titled, "The Evolution of Maximum Body Size of Terrestrial Mammals," released recently in the prestigious journal Science, is the first to quantitatively explore the patterns of body size of mammals after the demise of the dinosaurs.